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ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
For I think it has already been sufficiently said by us that the aim of every hierarchy is unwaveringly to depend upon the God-imitating godlikeness, and that every hierarchic operation is divided into a sacred participation in, and an imparting of, unmixed purification and divine light and perfecting knowledge.
To the first beings, which, established after the Godhead that gives them their being, and ranged as it were in its forecourt, surpass every created power, invisible and visible, we must hold the hierarchy to be proper to them and wholly of one kind.
We must, then, hold them to be pure, not as freed from unholy stains and defilements, nor as incapable of material imaginings, but as being unmixedly higher than all descent, and established above every lower sacred thing according to their supreme purity; firmly cleaving, unswervingly, to their own ever-moving and self-moving order, in accordance with their God-loving immutability; and not knowing at all any lessening toward the worse, but ever possessing the unfailing and immovable, most unmixed establishment of their own godlike property.
We must again hold them to be contemplative, not as beholders of perceptible symbols or of intellectual ones, nor as led up to the divine by the variety of sacred-written contemplation, but as filled with a light higher than all immaterial knowledge, and filled, so far as is lawful, with the contemplation of the superessential and thrice-shining beauty—source of beauty and originating beauty; and as likewise deemed worthy of communion with Jesus, not by stamping the deifying likeness representationally in sacredly fashioned images, but as truly drawing near to him in a first participation of the knowledge of his deifying lights; and, moreover, that the imitation of God has been granted to them most exaltedly, and that they share, so far as is attainable for them, in first-working power, in his deifying and man-loving virtues.
And likewise they are perfected, not as illumined with an analytic knowledge of the sacred variety, but as filled with a first and surpassing deification, according to that highest knowledge of the divine works possible among angels.
For not through other holy beings, but consecrated by the Godhead itself, by being stretched up immediately toward it with the power and order surpassing all, they are established toward the all-pure and the in-every-way unswerving, and are led, so far as is lawful, to the immaterial and intelligible comeliness for contemplation; and they are initiated, as the first and those around God, into the knowledgeable principles of the divine works, being consecrated most exaltedly by the very Source of consecration itself.
This, then, the theologians clearly indicate: that the lower orderings of the heavenly beings are taught the divine sciences in good order by those that surpass them, while those higher than all are illumined with the initiations, so far as is lawful, by the Godhead itself.
“For I,” he says, “speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation.” And I marvel that even the first of the supraheavenly beings, so far surpassing all, reverently aspire to the divine illuminations as intermediaries.
Therefore the first hierarchy of the heavenly intelligences, being consecrated by the very Source of consecration—by being stretched up immediately toward it—is filled in proportion to itself with the most holy purification of the boundless light, of the pre-perfect consummation, and is purified and illumined and perfected, being rendered unmixed with all descent, full of the first light, and a partaker of first-given knowledge and science.
And summing up, I would say, not unreasonably, that the reception of the divine knowledge is purification and illumination and perfection: purifying, as it were, from ignorance by the knowledge of the more perfect initiations imparted according to order; illumining by that very divine knowledge through which it also purifies the one who had not before contemplated the things now revealed through the higher illumination; and perfecting, again, by that same light, with the abiding knowledge of the most luminous initiations.
This, then, in my understanding, is the first ordering of the heavenly beings, which stands “in a circle around God” and immediately about God, and simply and unceasingly dances around his eternal knowledge, according to its most exalted, ever-moving establishment as among angels; beholding purely many and blessed contemplations, illumined with simple and immediate brightnesses, and filled with divine nourishment—abundant by the first-given outpouring, yet one by the unvaried and unifying oneness of the divine feasting; deemed worthy of much communion with God and cooperation by its assimilation, so far as attainable, to him in the beautiful states and activities; knowing many of the divine things in a transcendent manner, and coming to be in participation, so far as is lawful, of the divine science and knowledge.
For some of them, to speak in perceptible terms, cry aloud “as the voice of many waters”: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place”; while others cry out that much-hymned and most venerable theology: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
…extending even to the ends of the earth its most good providence over all beings, as the supra-originating principle and cause of every being, and grasping all things superessentially in an unrestrained embrace.
But we must now pass on to the middle ordering of the heavenly intelligences, beholding with supercosmic eyes, so far as is attainable, those Dominions and the truly powerful spectacles of the divine Authorities and Powers.
Of the holy Dominions, then, I think the revelatory name signifies a certain unenslaved elevation, free of all servile abasement, in no way and by no manner bowed down to any of the tyrannical dissimilarities; itself, in a freedom-befitting manner, as an inexorable Dominion superior to all diminishing servility, unyielding to every descent, and exalted above all dissimilarity; ceaselessly aspiring to true dominion and lordship, and shaping, so far as is attainable, both itself and the things after it in a good-formed manner toward its own lordly resemblance; turned not toward any of the things that seem so at random, but wholly toward the truly Existent, and ever coming to be in participation, so far as is possible for it, of the lordly godlikeness.
And of the holy Powers, [the name signifies] a certain manly and unshaken courage in all their godlike activities, in no way feebly weakening toward the reception of the divine illuminations imparted to it, but powerfully led up toward the imitation of God, not forsaking through unmanliness its godlike movement, but unswervingly gazing upon the superessential and power-bestowing Power, and becoming, so far as attainable, a power-like image of it, and turned powerfully toward it as toward the originating Power, while proceeding in a power-bestowing and godlike manner toward the things below.
And of the holy Authorities, of equal rank with the divine Dominions and Powers, [the name signifies] the well-ordered and unconfused good order with respect to the divine receptions, and the orderliness of the supercosmic and intellectual authoritativeness, which does not tyrannically misuse the authoritative powers toward the worse, but is unrestrainedly led up in good order toward the divine, and leads up the things after it in a good-formed manner; and is assimilated, so far as is lawful, to the authority-bestowing Source of authority, and makes this shine forth, so far as possible among angels, in the well-ordered ranks of the authoritative power that are proper to it.
Possessing these godlike properties, the middle ordering of the heavenly intelligences is purified and illumined and perfected in the manner described, by the divine illuminations imparted to it secondarily through the first hierarchic ordering, and conveyed in a second-manifest manner through that middle one.
Indeed, the saying that a thing said by one angel passes through to another, we shall make a symbol of the perfecting accomplished from afar and dimmed, by reason of the procession, into a secondary stage.
For as those skilled in our sacred rites say that the self-appearing fillings of the divine things are more perfect than the God-beholding participations had through others, so too, I think, among the angelic orders, the immediate participation of those stretched up to God in the first rank is more vivid than the things accomplished through mediation.
…[the first ranks themselves] being led up to the superessential Source of all, and coming to be in participation, so far as is lawful for them, of the consecrating-source-given purifications and illuminations and perfectings.
For this is universally, in a manner befitting God, decreed by the divine ordering-principle: that the second things partake of the divine illuminations through the first.
For when the divine and fatherly love for mankind, having instructed Israel correctively for its sacred salvation, and having delivered it up to punishing and untamed nations for its amendment, by every kind of leading-over of those for whom it provided toward the better, both released it from captivity and graciously led it back to its former well-being—one of the theologians, Zacharias, sees one of the first and, as I think, of the angels around God (for, as I said, the angelic appellation is common to all), having learned from God himself the consolatory words concerning this, as has been said; and another, one of the lower angels, going forth to meet the first as toward the reception and sharing of illumination; and then, being initiated by the first into the divine counsel, as by a hierarch, and entrusted with initiating the theologian: that “Jerusalem shall be inhabited abundantly, by reason of the multitude of men.” And another of the theologians, Ezekiel, says that this was all-sacredly decreed by the supremely glorious Godhead enthroned upon the Cherubim.
For, as has been said, leading Israel over toward the better by fatherly love through instruction, it deemed it just, with a God-befitting righteousness, that the guiltless should give judgment concerning the guilty.
This is first initiated, after the Cherubim, by the one girded about the loins with sapphire, who had put on the full-length robe, after a hierarchic symbol; and the divine ordering-principle commands the rest of the angels, who held the axes, to be initiated by the former one into the divine judgment concerning this.
There remains for our sacred contemplation the ordering that closes the angelic hierarchies, the one ordered by the godlike Principalities and Archangels and Angels.
…[the property of the holy Principalities is] to lead in a princely (originating) manner, and to be stamped, so far as possible, after that very Principle which makes principles, and to manifest its superessential ordering-rule by the princely good order of the powers.
But since there is no hierarchy without first and middle and last powers, the holy order of the Archangels, sharing in the hierarchic middle position, partakes of the extremes.
For it shares both with the most holy Principalities and with the holy Angels: with the former, in that it is turned in a princely manner toward the superessential Principle, and is stamped after it so far as is attainable, and unifies the Angels according to its well-ordered and ranked and invisible governances; with the latter, in that it is also of the revelatory order, receiving the divine illuminations hierarchically through the first powers, and announcing them to the Angels in a good-formed manner, and through Angels manifesting them to us, according to the sacred proportion of each of those divinely illumined.
For the Angels, as we have already said before, complete, as a finishing rank, the whole orderings of the heavenly intelligences, possessing—at the last, as among heavenly beings—the angelic property, and being more properly named “angels” by us than the former ones, inasmuch as their hierarchy is concerned with the more manifest and is more world-related.
For the highest ordering, as has been said, being in the first rank near the Hidden, we must hold to be hierarch over the second in a hidden manner; and the second, which is completed by the holy Dominions and Powers and Authorities, leads the hierarchy of the Principalities and Archangels and Angels—more manifestly than the first hierarchy, but in a more hidden manner than the one after it; and the revelatory ordering of the Principalities and Archangels and Angels presides, through one another, over the human hierarchies, so that there may be, in good order, the ascent toward God and the conversion and communion and union, and indeed also the procession, graciously imparted by God to all the hierarchies, and communally visiting them with most sacred good order.
—we must answer that it is not the upright presidings of the angels that should be blamed for the straying of the other nations after gods that are not, but those very nations themselves, who by their own inclinations fell away from the upright ascent toward the divine, through self-love and willfulness and the proportionate veneration of the things that seemed to them God-befitting.
For we do not have a constrained life; nor, because of the self-determination of those for whom providence cares, are the divine lights of the providential illumination dimmed; but the dissimilarity of the intellectual eyes makes the overflowing gift of light from the fatherly goodness either wholly unparticipated and, by reason of their resistance, unimparted, or makes the participations diverse—small or great, dim or bright—of the one and simple and ever-selfsame and super-unified source-ray.
From which considerations we too have lifted up our eyes to the boundless and ungrudging sea of the divine light, ever ready and open for imparting to all; no alien gods presided, but there was one Source of all, and toward this the angels who hierarchically presided over each nation led up those who followed. We must conceive Melchizedek as a most God-loving hierarch, not of those who are not, but of the truly Existent, the Most High God.
For indeed the divinely wise theologians have called Melchizedek not simply God-loving, but also a priest, that to the prudent they might clearly manifest that not only was he himself turned toward the truly Existent God, but moreover that he led others also, as a hierarch, in the ascent toward the true and only Godhead.
For there is one Source and providence of all; and we must in no way suppose that the Godhead presides over the Jews in a partial manner, while angels in a private capacity, or on equal terms, or in opposition, or certain other gods, preside over the rest of the nations; but that saying too must be understood according to this sacred sense—not as though God had divided with other gods or angels the rule over us, and apportioned Israel to himself for an ethnarch and leader of a nation, but rather that, while the one Most High providence of all distributed all men salvifically by the uplifting hand-leadings of their own angels, almost Israel alone, beyond all, was turned toward the light-giving and the knowledge of the truly Lord.
Hence theology, manifesting that Israel apportioned itself to the service of the truly Existent God, says, “He became the Lord’s portion”; and indicating that he too, equally with the rest of the nations, was assigned to one of the holy angels, in order that through him he might recognize the one Source of all, it said that Michael rules over the people of the Jews—clearly teaching us that there is one providence of the whole, superessentially established above all the invisible and visible powers, and that all the angels presiding over each nation lift up, so far as they have power, those who willingly follow toward it as their own Source.
And all are revelatory, even the Angels, of those before them: the most senior, of God who moves them; and proportionately the rest, of those moved from God.
For the all-superessential harmony provided so greatly for the sacred good order and the orderly ascent of each of the rational and intellectual beings, that it established for each of the hierarchies also their God-befitting ranks.
And we see every hierarchy divided into first and middle and last powers; but it has also distinguished each particular ordering, so to speak, by these same inspired harmonies.
And I would add this too, not unreasonably: that each heavenly and human intelligence, in itself, possesses its own particular first and middle and last orders and powers, manifested proportionately for the proper ascents, befitting each, of the hierarchic illuminations spoken of; according to which each comes to be in participation, so far as is lawful and attainable for it, of the most pure purification, of the over-full light, of the pre-perfect perfecting.
Now that these things have been determined, it is worth considering for what cause we are accustomed to call all the angelic beings together “heavenly powers.”
For it is not possible to say of the angels, as one might, that the last ordering of all is that of the holy Powers, and that the orderings of the higher beings partake of the holiness-befitting illumination of the last, while the last in no way partake of that of the first; and for this reason all the divine intelligences are named “heavenly powers,” but never “Seraphim” or “Thrones” or “Dominions.”
For the Angels, and before the Angels the Archangels and Principalities and Authorities—ranked by theology after the Powers—are often called by us in common, together with the other holy beings, “heavenly powers.”
And we say that, in using the appellation of “heavenly powers” in common for all, we do not introduce any confusion of the properties of each ordering; but since, by the supercosmic principle that concerns them, all the divine intelligences are divided into three—into being and power and activity—whenever we call all of them, or some, indiscriminately “heavenly beings” or “heavenly powers,” we must hold that we are manifesting periphrastically those of whom the discourse treats, from the being or power of each of them.
For we must not attach the higher property of the holy Powers—already well distinguished by us—wholly to the lower beings as well, to the overturning of the unconfused ordering-rule of the angelic orders.
For according to the principle often rightly rendered by us, the higher orderings possess abundantly also the sacred properties of the lower, but the last do not possess in a total manner the higher wholenesses of their seniors, since the first-manifest illuminations are conveyed to them only partially, through the first, in proportion to themselves.
For example, the order of the holy Cherubim partakes of higher wisdom and knowledge; and the orderings of the beings beneath them likewise partake of wisdom and knowledge, but partially in comparison with those, and in a lower manner. And to be in participation of wisdom and knowledge at all is common to all the godlike among the intellectual beings; but to do so proximately and primarily, or secondarily, and in a lower manner, is no longer common, but is determined for each according to its own proportion.
For just as the first possess abundantly the holiness-befitting properties of the lower, so the last possess those of the former—yet not in like manner, but in a lower manner.
There is nothing absurd, then, as I think, if theology also calls our hierarch an “angel,” since he partakes, according to his own power, of the revelatory property of the angels, and is stretched up, so far as is attainable for men, toward their revelatory likeness.
And you will find that theology calls “gods” both the heavenly beings above us and the most God-loving and sacred men among us—although the divine hiddenness is superessentially exalted above and established above all things, and nothing of beings can properly and totally be named as resembling it.
Except that, insofar as any of the intellectual and rational beings is wholly turned, so far as it has power, toward union with it, and is ceaselessly stretched up, so far as is attainable, toward its divine illuminations, by its God-imitation according to its power—if it is lawful to say so—it has been deemed worthy also of the divine namesake.
For one might be perplexed that it is not one of the lower angels, but he himself who is numbered among the most senior beings, who purifies the prophet.
Some, then, say that, according to the principle already laid down concerning the communion of all the intelligences, the Scripture does not mean that one of the foremost intelligences around God came for the purification of the theologian; but that one of the angels set over us was called, as the performer of the prophet’s purification, by the namesake of the Seraphim, on account of the fiery removal of the sins spoken of, and the rekindling of the one purified toward the divine obedience; and they say that the Scripture said simply “one of the Seraphim,” not of those established around God, but of the purifying powers set over us.
For the one who said this declared that the divine power, ranging over all things, advances and penetrates unrestrainedly through all, and is yet again invisible to all—not only as superessentially exalted above all, but also as secretly extending over all things its providential activities.
But moreover it also appears proportionately to all the intellectual beings, and, entrusting its own gift of light to the most senior beings as the first, it distributes it through them, in good order, to those below them, according to the God-beholding commensurateness of each ordering.
Or, that I may say it more clearly and by means of proper examples—even if they fall short of God who is exalted above all, yet are more manifest to us:
the diffusion of the sun’s ray passes easily-imparted into the first matter, which is more translucent than all, and through it shines forth its own brightnesses more manifestly; but striking the denser materials, it has a dimmer imparting brilliance, by reason of the unsuitability of the illumined materials for the disposition that conveys the gift of light; and from this, little by little, it is drawn together to the point of being almost wholly unimpartable.
Again, the heat of fire imparts itself more to the more receptive things, and to those pliant and easily led toward assimilation to it; but toward resistant or contrary substances either no trace, or a dim trace, of its enkindling activity appears.
And what is more than this: that it strikes the non-kindred things through those that are proper to it—first, if it so happens, making fiery the things easily altered toward enkindling, and through these proportionately warming either water or some other of the things not easily kindled.
According to this same principle of natural good order, then, in a supernatural manner, the ordering-rule of all good order, visible and invisible, manifests the splendor of its own gift of light first-manifestly, in most blessed outpourings, upon the highest beings, and through these the beings after them partake of the divine ray.
For these, having first recognized God and exaltedly aspired to divine virtue, have been deemed worthy to become the first-working of the God-imitating power and activity, so far as is attainable; and they stretch up the beings after them, so far as they have power, toward the like emulation, in a good-formed manner, ungrudgingly imparting to them of the splendor that has visited them; and again those impart to the lower ones; and at each step the first imparts to the one after it of the divine light which is bestowed and which passes through to all proportionately by providence.
There is, then, for all the things illumined, a principle of being illumined: God, by nature and truly and properly, as the substance of light and the cause of being itself and of seeing; but by position and in a God-imitating manner, each higher being, partially, [is a principle] for the one after it, in that the divine lights are channeled through it into that one.
The highest ordering of the heavenly intelligences, therefore, the substances of all the remaining angels reasonably regard, after God, as their source of all sacred knowledge of God and imitation of God, since through those the divine illumination is imparted to all, even to us.
They partake indeed, but in a lower manner, and looking toward the first, and through them, as toward those first deemed worthy of the God-imitation in a first-working way, being led up to the attainable measure of the godlike.
Therefore the aforesaid holy properties, in participation of which the beings after them have come to be through the first, they ascribe to those very ones, after God, as to hierarchs.
He who said these things declared, then, that that vision was shown to the theologian through one of the holy and blessed angels set over us, and that by his illuminating hand-leading he was stretched up to that sacred contemplation, in which he beheld the highest beings established, to speak symbolically, “under God” and “with God” and “around God,” and the supra-original summit, exalted above all and above these themselves in an unspeakably transcendent manner, established above the surpassing powers, in their midst.
The theologian, then, learned from the things seen that, in all superessential transcendence, the divine is incomparably established above all visible and invisible power; and moreover that it is exalted above all things, as utterly not even resembling the first beings of all; and besides, that it is itself both the principle and the being-making cause of all, and the unchanging establishment of the indissoluble abiding of beings, by which both being and well-being belong even to the surpassing powers themselves.